


How to teach children to feel safe again

by SmallPotatoCat



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Choking, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Minor Character Death, Murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-16 11:20:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28955595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmallPotatoCat/pseuds/SmallPotatoCat
Summary: And when those who are supposed to protect you don't even bother to look at you, who can save you?Who can save you from the constant fear of being killed by the ones you love, if those so-called peacekeepers let you down?Should you choose a more violent, a more extreme way to get out of it?
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten & Liu Yang Yang
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21
Collections: Challenge #4 — Awaken The World





	How to teach children to feel safe again

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there
> 
> First of all please, please read the tags. I wouldn't want to trigger you, the end is like really violent so please, read the tags before reading this story. I'm really bad at tagging my works but at least i know how to put the correct TW so please
> 
> Beside, thanks to the ALW mods for coming with this amazing round, and thanks to my best friend to beta reading this and correcting a loooooot of mistakes.  
> This is like my first attempt of writing sci-fi, and in less than 3K it's kinda hard so i hope it's sci-fi enough to fit this round–

Ten threw himself through the window of the nearest abandoned building, hearing the police’s sirens right behind him. He dashed to the stairs, until he reached the roof.

Lucky him, it wasn’t the tallest building of the city, it didn’t take him too long to reach the top. Unlucky him, at least three cops were behind him, and he had less than five seconds to find a way to escape or he’ll be arrested—and by arrested he obviously means sentenced to death. In fact, he might even not be  _ sentenced  _ to death, just executed right there. There were cameras everywhere, if he was shot there, the government would immediately know. But what authoritarian government, controlled  _ by the police _ , would care if a fugitive was killed  _ by the police _ ? Either way, they would say he would be sentenced to death anyway. Because that’s what happened to criminals.

And saying that Ten was a criminal was an understatement. He was the most wanted criminal of Neo City, the most dangerous one, and the only one who managed to escape police for this long. The police got him in their sight for almost five years, and even though they knew who he was, they never were able to catch him. Not even with all those cameras. Not even with everyone’s chip, specifically used to trace the citizens. Not with all the technology the government was able to use to spy on the citizens and catch the gangsters. Ten was the only one they never managed to put in jail.

And today was still not the day they would catch him. When they arrived on the roof, Ten was gone. Vanished in the air.

Or that’s what it seemed. The reality was obviously different. Ten jumped on a flying car that passed by, then on a neon sign on the other side of the street, and he continued his run in the narrow streets between the buildings. Simple, really. But before the cops could figure out how he escaped, it was too late. Ten was already out of sight.

~*~

It’s been already three days since Ten was almost arrested. It was time to get back to work.

It was the middle of the night, Ten was spying on his next target : a rich man, whose daughter was getting greedy. Nothing really fun, if Ten was honest. He rolled his eyes when the woman asked him to kill his father so she could inherit his money.

Still, he accepted it. It wasn’t funny, but at least it was easy, and she would pay him. That was all that mattered. Him getting paid.

Ten almost sighed when he brought the scope of his sniper to his eye. The man had been sitting on his sofa ever since before Ten arrived on the opposite building, and he hadn’t moved since. Easy.

Ten aimed, shot, and everything was done. Easy. As expected. What wasn’t expected, though, was the boy that suddenly appeared as Ten turned around to walk away.

Well, not really a boy. More like a young teenager. Maybe twelve, or thirteen. And he was looking at Ten, without a blink.

“The fuck you want, kiddo ?” Ten spat, as if he was trying to scare him.

“Are… Are you Ten ?” The boy asked. 

“Depends on who’s asking.” 

“I-I’m Yangyang, and… And I would like you to kill my father.”

Ten almost choked with surprise, “You what ?”

“Yeah, I…” Yangyang awkwardly took a step forward, shoving money in Ten’s hands, “This is all I have, is it enough ? Please, I… I really need help. Please.”

Ten rolled his eyes, “Go home, kiddo. You don’t know what you’re asking me.” 

“No ! No, please !” Yangyang almost started crying, gripping at Ten’s wrist. “Please, don’t make me go home…! My father, he… I… He… He hates me, and… And… No, no, I can't, he’ll kill me. He already tried once, please. I don’t want him to hurt me again, please…” 

Ten’s expression suddenly softened ; he wasn’t expecting that this kid would instantly panic at the simple thought of going home. What was happening to him, what was his father doing to him, that he was so scared of him, so willing to kill him ?

He took a moment to observe him, his thin silhouette, the bags under his eyes, the dry blood under his nose, the bruises on his wrists and maybe somewhere else on his body.

This child was abused physically—and it wasn’t hard to guess by whom.

Ten could feel anger creeping in his body.

“Keep your money, kid–Yangyang. Is that it ? Yangyang. Keep your money. I won’t do it. And you know why ?” Yangyang shook his head. “Because you’re the one who’ll do it.”

Yangyang’s eyes widened, “W-what ? But I can’t, I-I… I don’t…” 

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you.” Ten smiled. “I think you deserve your revenge. Go home, take all your stuff, and meet me there. I’ll take you out of this shit.”

~*~

Ten disappeared for the next two years. He was nowhere to be seen. Nobody heard about him.

Everyone thought he was dead.

Yangyang was the only one knowing he was still alive. Ten was just on a break, as he often said. Training his successor.

At first Yangyang didn’t really agree with that word. He wasn’t Ten’s successor. He was some lost boy Ten found and took under his wing. He just wanted to kill his father and live his life freely.

But the more he was training with Ten, the more the elder boy would tell him stories of his «job», the more Yangyang would be passionate about it, almost finding it fun.

Yangyang stole something, once. It wasn’t a big robbery, like Ten used to do. It was just a grocery store not far. One of the few ones of the city still held by actual humans—which is why Ten chose this one specifically, it was an easy one.

Yangyang entered the shop anxious ; he left running, laughing, and full of this intoxicating feeling he wanted to feel again.

So he stole again. And again. It was always small, little robberies, nothing that could get him in serious troubles. But he liked it. He  _ loved _ it.

And he was right. He wasn’t Ten’s successor. He was his partner. His partner in crime.

~*~

When he judged Yangyang was close to being ready, Ten asked him if he ever thought of how he would kill his father.

“Face to face. I want to be close.” Yangyang answered, with a serious expression Ten had never seen on his face. “I want to see the exact moment when life leaves his body. I want him to see the face of the boy he almost broke breaking  _ him _ instead.”

Ten almost pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

And for a moment, he realized that Yangyang never showed, never told how he was feeling about this. He couldn’t be all fine after everything he endured in his childhood. Yet he always pretended so. He always pretended to be fine, so much that Ten never actually imagined that Yangyang could be anything but fine. And it made him sad, that he never noticed and that Yangyang felt like he had to hide it from him.

So this time, he came to him and put an arm around his shoulder, taking him in an almost hug that wasn’t really a hug but that was supposed to feel like a hug. 

“Hey, you’re sure you’re ok, kiddo ?” He gently asked.

“Yeah, Yeah, I… Maybe I’m angrier than I thought. And stop calling me «kiddo», I’m almost 16.”

“Yeah and I’m almost 25, you’re still a kiddo to me.” Yangyang rolled his eyes, and Ten pinched his waist, “But hey. You know that, if you don’t feel good or something, you can talk to me, right ? Before you ask, I'm totally referring to what you think I’m referring to but I’ll pretend I don’t, I don’t want to force you or something, but... Yeah. You can find me, yeah.”

Ten then smiled, and he just left.

And that night, Yangyang went to Ten’s room, and they talked. A lot. Yangyang didn’t really know what he wanted to say, honestly. But hey, Ten said that if he wanted to talk he could find him so he found him and they talked. Yangyang cried a bit, they got really angry at his father, they talked again and again.

And when the sun rose, and they were giving up their fight against sleep, they finally decided: today would be the day Yangyang killed his father.

~*~

Ten was surprisingly more anxious than Yangyang. Or maybe Yangyang hid it really well.

In any case, Yangyang walked to the door without any hesitation.

"Dad! Open up, I know you're there!" He shouted, banging the door.

Unexpectedly, it's a young woman who opened the door. Yangyang blinked dumbly ; he's never seen her. But having her standing in the doorway instead of his father made him very angry.

"Where is he?" He asked, pushing the woman aside to come in. "Where is he?!"

"Who?"

"My motherfucker of a dad!"

"Yangyang, calm down, she has nothing to do with it." Ten warned, gripping his arm.

"See, I kind of don't care." Yangyang shrugged him off, making his way toward what seemed to be a living room. "I have a father to beat up and she's in the way."

As he expected,  _ he _ was there. Like a vegetable on the couch. Yet, when he saw Yangyang, he immediately got up, opening his arms as if he was relieved to see him.

"Yangyang, my son! Where have you been? I couldn't find you, what happened to your chip?"

"I removed it. The point was exactly that you couldn't find me." Yangyang said coldly, clenching his fists.

"Why?" his father shook his head, "Nevermind, now that you're home–"

"I'm not home!" Yangyang spat, moving forward until he was only inches away from his father. "This is not my home! And I didn't come to live back here! I came to take my revenge!"

Before the man could even understand what it meant, Yangyang punched him in the face, breaking his nose.

"Oh my god, stop !" The woman shouted, trying to stop them, but Ten held her back. "Please, stop them!"

Yangyang looked at her briefly, before kicking his father's ribs, "I'm unstoppable. I came here to kill this piece of trash, and I won't go before I've actually done it." He then kicked him in the stomach, making him kneel down, and grabbed his hair, "How does it feel, being the one hit for his mistakes, uh? Are you scared to die as much as I was? Because you should."

His father didn't answer, already too messed up to talk.

Yangyang kicked him again, hearing the woman begging him to stop. He ignored her, of course.

The man fell on the back, and Yangyang took the chance to sit on his stomach, pinning him down.

He could see that his father was indeed afraid of hil, and he couldn't help but snicker.

"See? That's how I felt for fourteen years. Fourteen fucking years of you terrorizing me. Now it's my turn to play, don't you think so?"

A strangled noise escaped the man's lips as Yangyang put his hands around his throat, grasping with all his strength.

The man struggled, trying to escape ; Yangyang heard someone slamming a door, but he couldn't care less.

His eyes were glued to his father's, waiting for the moment they would close, for the moment life would definitely leave his body.

He somehow managed to free one of his hands, only to punch him even more, "Those are for all the times you hit me! And this one is for my mom! You don't deserve to live, not when you almost killed her!"

And he punched him, over and over again, not noticing the tears running down his cheeks, nor the fact that his father has stopped moving for a few minutes already. He just hit him. Hit him until his knuckles bleed, until his head hurts, until his vision gets blurry.

Until Ten put a hand on his shoulder, making him stop instantly.

He turned to him, his gaze as empty as the corpse's under him.

"It's over, Yangyang, it's over." Ten whispered while wiping his tears. "He's dead, he can't hurt you anymore."

"He's dead?"

"Totally dead." Ten took his hands, making him stand. "And you're injured, look at you."

"I killed him?" Yangyang asked again, as if he couldn't believe it.

"Indeed. You’re free, now."

And without a warning, Yangyang started crying. Of fear, of relief, of various feelings he couldn't describe.

Ten pulled him in a hug, "Not a kiddo anymore, uh?"

"I just—I just killed a man!" Yangyang sniffled, laughing nervously. "What kind of kid would do that, uh?"

"Well, a kiddo raised by an assassin, who had a revenge to get, I guess."

"You must be right." Yangyang shrugged, and pushed Ten away, “Let’s go, I don’t want to stay here.” Ten put his arm around Yangyang shoulders, smiling, “Yeah, let’s go home.”

~*~

This day was the day everyone heard that Ten was still alive, and that he was back on doing criminal stuff around the city.

But he wasn’t alone anymore.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello this is the post-reveal note \o/  
> Thanks again to the mods for this round, it was fun!
> 
> Anyway, there's like 100% chance nobody here knows who i am, but maybe someone will want to know–
> 
> I'm French, so i don't write in English quite often yet—but if someone here knows French i also have a wattpad account (@petitchatpatate, which is also my Twitter, i absolutely don't know how to put link in notes but nvm), and I'll try writing more in english anyway, so i hope to see you around :D


End file.
